Which State Was Least Great in 2008?
A really cool data table -- with an even cooler graph after the jump -- shows how GDP, jobs and home prices moved in each state last year. How did your state do? If you live in North Dakota, congratulations to both of you for nationwide highs in both home price increase (1.9%) and a GDP boost of 7.3% (...whoa, look out China!). As for the shame of the nation, hang your head Alaska (worst GDP), Arizona (worst job losses by percent), and Nevada (worst home price collapse). But which state did the worst overall? You can probably guess...
It's Florida, which scored the third worst in all three categories: GDP, jobs and home prices, making it the only state to appear in the bottom five in all three. Here's the link again so you can see how your state did.

Without devling too much into demographics (paging resident expert Richard Florida), I'll highlight some interesting outliers.
1) Maryland's GDP grew at a decent 1.7% even as it experienced the country's fifth worst home price collapse.
2) Vermont's job losses were worse that California, home of the apolcalypse, but its GDP grew last year.
3) My dear Alaska: Your GDP took the biggest hit in the country, but you grew your job force and managed to increase your average home value in 2008. The Palin effect?